Gas lighter



J. F. HERI ec. l2, 1967 GAS LIGHTER 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed March 8, 1965'FIC Flea

J. F. HERI Dec. 12, 1967 GAS LIGHTER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 8,1965 FIGA United States Patent O 3,357,211 GAS LIGHTER Joseph FranzHeri, Bienne, Switzerland, assignor to Manufacture Samao SA., Bienne,Switzerland, a firm Filed Mar. 8, 1965, Ser. No. 437,899 1 Claim. (Cl.67-7.1)

The present invention has for its object a gas lighter of the typeincluding a body forming a gas container, a combustion nozzle, a valvecontrolling the input of gas into said nozzle, a flame extinguisherpivotally secured to said body and adapted to be selectively raised soas to allow ignition of the lighter or folded back over the nozzle so asto extinguish the ame, While means are provided for holding the valve inits closed condition at least as long as the flame extinguisher caps thenozzle. In such lighters, the flame extinguisher is controlled by anelastic blade secured at one end to a part of the lighter body, whileits other end is slightly raised and acts on the flame extinguisher inthe vicinity of the pivotal axis of the latter, so as to returnelastically said extinguisher into its nozzlecapping position when it isattempted to move it away against the action of said blade, or else soas to hold the extinguisher in its raised position While the opening ofthe valve is performed through a raising of one of its component parts.According to the present invention, the lighter is designed in a mannersuch that when the flame extinguisher is raised and said raised sectionof the elastic blade is caused to bend, said blade pivots slightly rounda transverse line of fold, whereby its end secured to the valve rises toa sufficient extent for it to open said valve.

The accompanying drawings illustrate by Way of example a preferredembodiment of said invention. In said drawings:

FIGURE l is a vertical transverse cross-sectional view of the lighter.

FIGURES 2 and 3 are detail views of the mechanism on a larger scale inlongitudinal ve-rtical cross-sectional views.

FIGURE 4 is a cross-section on a very large scale of the valveincorporated with the lighter according to FIG- URE 1.

As illustrated in FIGURE l, the gas lighter includes a recessed bod-y 1the lower end of which is closed by a bottom 2 and forming a containerfor a mass 3 of liquefied gas introduced into the container through avalve 4 provided in said bottom; said fuel is fed into a combustionnozzle 5 through the adjusting valve 6. To the body 1 is pivotallysecured at 1a the arm 7a rigid with the llame extinguisher 7 controlledby the elastic 'blade 8 and adapted to be held selectively in its lowerposition illustrated in FIGURE 2 for which position the llameextinguisher caps the nozzle, or else, it may be brought into its raisedposition illustrated in FIGURE 3 when it is desi-red to ignite thelighter. Said ignition is obtained in a conventional manner by causing aknurled wheel 9 to turn and to frictionally engage a int 10. Thestructure of the valve 6 carried by the lighter need not be describedwith any detail. The output of gas is adjusted by angularly shifting asocket 12 through the agency of a lever terminating with a ring 11 so asto screw said socket 12 into an outer socket 13 which is locked againstangular movement, said socket 12 acting vertically on an annular packing14 with the interposition of the dished member 15 inside which saidpacking is fitted. Thus, any modification in the pressure exerted by thedished member 15 on the packing 14 leads to a corresponding modicationin diameter of the axial bore in said packing, whereby consequently theiiow of gas adapted to feed the nozzle 5 of the valve is throttled to anadjustable extent.

The flow of gas may furthermore be cut off 'by another packing 16 fittedinside a recess formed at the lower end of the body of the nozzle 5,which latter is adapted to slide duid-tightly inside the socket 12 whileit may be raised against the action of a return spring 17. The gas canthere-fore feed the nozzle only when the latter is in its raisedposition and has released the packing 16.

In the lighter illustrated, the valve opens automatically under theaction of the spring 8 as soon as the llame extinguisher is slightlyraised above its position illustrated in FIGURE 2 so as to be shiftedinto the position illustrated in FIGURE 3. a

The left-hand end of the spring 8 is engaged in fact through an opening8a over the body of the nozzle 5 and it is locked in an axial directionon said nozzle by a clip 19 engaging an annular groove 5a in the nozzlebody, Whereas the right-hand end of the spring 8 is bent upwardly andengages elastically the pivotal arm 7a carrying the actual flameextinguisher 7; in fact when the flame extinguisher is turned down intoits lower position illustrated in FIGURE 2, the spring 8 engages theinner surface of the pivoting arm and it engages the shorter transverseedge of the arm perpendicular to the firstmentioned surface when saidarm is raised into its vertical position illustrated in FIGURE 3, thespring engaging for all the intermediate positions the ridge of thepivotal arm 7a along the meeting line between said normally lowerhorizontal surface and normally transverse edge of the arm.

The data defining the elasticity of the blade 8 and ofthevalve-controlling spring 17 are selected in a manner such that when theflame extinguisher and its arm have been raised by a heightcorresponding to a pivotal angle of about 30, the spring executes arocking movement in the direction f round its line of fold 8b, theamplitude of which movement is sufhcient for the outer end of the springt-o raise the nozzle 5 against the antagonistic spring 17, whereby thegas contained in the lighter is allowed to iiow out of the nozzle. Theflow of fluid continues obviously when the llame extinguisher reachesits vertical position illustrated in FIGURE 3 and it stops when theflame extinguisher is being returned into the position illustrated inFIGURE 2 as soon as the iiame extinguisher and arm form again an anglesubstantially equal to 30 with the upper surface of the lighter.

Of course, the angular position of the flame extinguisher for which thevalve opens or closes may be dilierent from 30 as may be obtained bymodifying the design and elasticity of the blade 8 or of the spring 17.

The present invention is not limited to the arrangement described andillustrated and, in particular, although reference has been made only toa lighter in which the llame extinguisher is controlled manually, it isof course possible to incorporate the invention with a lighter providedWith an elastic ilame extinguisher, that is a flame extinguisher whichreturns into its vertical position under the control of a spring whichhas been tensioned by the preceding turning down of the ilameextinguisher into its extinguishing position.

What is claimed is:

In a gas lighter comprising a gas container, a combustion nozzle fed bysaid container to produce a flame, a valve biased by a spring intoclosed position and communicating with said nozzle for controlling theilow of gas through said nozzle and adapted to be shifted between anopen and a closed position, means urging the valve into its closedposition, a flame extinguisher including an arm pivotally secured to thecontainer provided adjacent its pivotal axis with an outer shorttransverse surface and an inner longitudinal surface, said ameextinguisher being adapted to be shifted between a collapsed positioncapping the nozzle to extinguish the llame and a raised positionreleasing said valve, the provision of an elastic blade provided with atransverse line of fold secured to. the container, one end of which isslightly raised and is adapted to engage the lla-me extinguisher at apoint adjacent its pivotal axis selectively along the transverse andalong the longitudinal surface -of said flame extinguisher arm therebyto urge the llame extinguisher into either of its above-mentionedpositions, means permanently securing the other end of the blade oversaid valve, the shifting of the flame extinguisher into either positionshifting the corresponding end of the blade to make the latter rockround its transverse line of fold to raise and open said valve againstsaid elastic blade for the raised position `of the flame extinguisherand to release said valve for the collapsed position of the llameextinguisher.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,671,328 3/ 1954 Flamm 67-7.13,149,484 9/1964 Kobayashi 67-7 .1

FOREIGN PATENTS 1,091,789 11/ 1954 France.

316,88() 12/ 1956 Switzerland.

EDWARD I. MICHAEL, Primary' Examiner.

